[The trial before Bovill ended at last, as it ought to have done
months before, in a verdict for the defendants and the order for the
prosecution of the Claimant for perjury. It was this prosecution that
occupied the attention of the court and of the world for 188 days,
extending over portions of two years.
There is no doubt that Coleridge would a second time have deprived
the country of Mr. Hawkins's services, but higher influences than his
prevailed, and the distinguished counsel was appointed to lead for the
Crown, with Mr. Serjeant Parry as his leading junior. It is not too
much to say that no one knew the case so well as Mr. Hawkins, and none
could have done it so well. Bowen and Mathews were also his juniors.
The whole case, from the commencement of the Chancery proceedings down
to the commencement of this trial, had been a comedy of blunders. The
very claim was an absurdity, every step in the great fraud was an
absurdity, and every proceeding had some ridiculous absurdity to
accompany it. It was not until the cross-examination of Baigent by Mr.
Hawkins that the undoubted truth began to appear.
"You are the first," said Baron Bramwell, "who has let daylight into
the case." It will be seen presently what the simple story was which
the learned counsel at last evolved from the lies and half-truths
which had for so many years imposed upon a great number even of the
intelligent and educated classes of the community.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238